Forever and Before
by Forever.Half.Full
Summary: Cam and Zach were in love before boarding school. They stayed together, including a senior year exchange to their old hometown's school. She left after graduation without a job. Years later, he meets a different Cam.
1. I

What should she say to him? She internally freaked out at the picture of the boy she was supposed to tail, but now was not the time to tell her friends she kept the most important part of her life from them, so she kept her face neutral.

He was her boyfriend of four years, best friend of twelve, and most certainly the bane of her existence. So how was she supposed to look at him, tail him, or, God forbid, talk to him, without blowing one of her covers? The cover on her mission- a normal girl out for a stroll on the Mall, or the cover she'd developed at school- the girl that was never popular, had no friends worth keeping in touch with, and was single until Josh, the boy she dated during a fight with Zach, whom she tried so desperately to hide. Both covers were equally important at the moment, yet neither would she be able to keep the moment she saw his face, and she knew it.

"Alright, ladies! Out, you go, we're here!" Mr. Solomon announced in an uncharacteristically cheery voice as he shooed Cammie and all of her sisters out of the van. Many of the girls began wandering aimlessly around the Mall, but Cam spotted Zach before she even left the van's back step. Being able to recognize someone from long distances away was just something that kind of happened when you were so close to them for so long. If she could notice him that easily, it wouldn't be that difficult for him to spot her, despite the fact that she was a far better pavement artist.

Upon closer inspection, she realized he was wearing the tee shirt she had gotten him for his last birthday. It said "Bite Me" on the front and had a picture of a girl in a bikini and a boy in a swimsuit on it, in reference to both their beach vacation for his birthday and their inside joke.

Flashback

_"Who are you?"_

_ Six year old Zachary Goode looked up. He shrugged. "Call me Zach." Even at such a young age, he had the smirk Cameron Morgan would later fall into a love- hate relationship with. _

_ He chose to ignore the implied _What are you doing in my sandbox?_ as she inched farther and farther away from him. Farther still until she had to rise to sit on the wooden rim of her favorite childhood playground feature. _

_ "Don't worry," he said, "I don't bite... Unless provoked." He winked, sounding more like his older cousin, the high school player, than his kindergarten self. In fact, it was a line he picked up- no pun intended- straight from James, the cousin who lived with his family. And even though it wasn't original, it became a sort of inside joke between the two._

The shirt and the flashback were too much, and they reminded her of her utterly hopeless cause. Yet it was nothing like her spy self to surrender a mission so easily, she and Zach hadn't had a date in ages. A movie with the love of her life was definitely worth failing CoveOps. Mr. Solomon could just suck it! But then, it was common knowledge that that was Aunt Abby's job...

To get unwanted thoughts of my aunt doing things I knew she did but liked to avoid, I began looking for Blackthorne Boys. They were pretty simple to find considering that we were restricted to the confines of the Mall, and I knew most of them from the Blackthorne annual visiting weeks I spent with Zach.

I had nine of the ten of them in seventeen minutes, leaving only one. Zach. I walked up behind him and slipped my arms around his waist.

"Zachary Goode, codename Lover Boy, wearing a hot bite me tee shirt his girlfriend bought him for his birthday, currently being felt up by some random girl on the street, which I'm sure said girlfriend would not like very much," I whispered into the comms Solomon gave me that I had rewired to connect to the Blackthorne frequency, instead of my sisters'.

"Well, I'm sure that girlfriend would not like this very much either!" With that, he grabbed be and swung me onto his shoulder potato sack style.

"Actually, I think she loves getting abducted randomly on the streets. But what she likes even more is when her boyfriend takes her to movies. She heard that Tower Heist was good." I swung my legs around so that I was sitting on his back piggy back fashion.

"I think he'll have to take her then. They haven't been on a date since the summer! Isn't it so depressing?"

"Very. But can we stop talking about ourselves in third person? It's not like we're British royalty or anything," I whined.

"But we will be, once we take over the world," he reminded me.

"Is that still on your to- do list? I heard you're staying with us for the semester, so we can have some time to conspire." I grinned evilly. "Maybe we could get some tips from the movie?"

We located a theater a few blocks away, and Zach carried me the whole way. The ticket lady raised her eyebrows at us but said nothing. I grinned at her.

The popcorn man wasn't quite as soft spoken about our situation though.

"Young love," he sighed. "Quite a fine catch you got yourself there, young man," he said to Zach.

"I'm not a fish, and I'm right here," I complained brattily.

"We know, babe. Your radiant beauty is like a ton of gold. It's kind of hard to miss," Zach complimented me. The people behind us awed and I pecked his neck, which was pretty much the only kissable place I could reach, besides his earlobe, which I felt was a bit too intimate for the candy line at the movie theater.

We got our popcorn and made our way to the screen room. As we settled into our seats, I heard Grant's voice in my ear. I had almost forgot about the comms, which we couldn't turn off. Our options were too listen to Grant's cheesy comments about Zach and I's romance or connect to the Gallagher frequency and alert my sisters of how I'd lied to them as long as I'd known them. I wasn't prepared for that, leaving only one choice.

Great. Because my first cousin listening in on my dates is definitely on the top of my Christmas list! _Not._

_Meet Joe, he will be your line break today. Say hi, Joe! *Hi...*_

_**I wanted to wait until I had more written to upload this, but I also wanted to publish a story on leap day, because I'll probably never have another chance too, so... Thanks so much for reading and please review! :)**_


	2. II

"Cameron, we are leaving. You need to get in the van, now."

"I'll find my way," I retorted.

"No," Solomon said, "you won't. I'll see to it the guards don't let you back into the gates."

"Fine. I'll stow away at Blackthorne for the semester. I think my killing skills are getting a little rusty."

"Hey, don't be mean about my school's curriculum! The fact that it's unique doesn't lessen its quality," Zach complained.

"Ha. Unique!" I snorted.

"Yes, it is, and just because it is doesn't mean it isn't as good! Honestly, one would think you attend a snobby all- girls' boarding school or something." He ignored my sarcasm and gave me what I deserved, admittedly.

"Really. Poking fun at an advanced school is not polite. You should be ashamed of yourself!" I admonished him, shoving his own words back into his face.

"Whatever, babe."

"Did you just give up a play argument? My Zachary Edward Goode does not go around giving up play arguments!" I pushed him up against a wall outside the theater. "Who are you and what have you done to my Zachy?" I demanded.

"Well you aren't one to talk. My Cameron Ann Goode does not go around pushing men up against walls! Unless... she wants to give him a mind- blowing kiss?" He raised an eyebrow at me seductively and winked.

I grinned impishly and pretended to offhandedly shrug. "Eh, maybe later." he pouted and made a strange sound, somewhere between the keening of a dying cat and a whimper. I made a grand show of leaning forward, closing in on his face, drawing closer... only to peck his nose. He growled. Yes, he actually growled! I laughed and dragged him into a standing position.

"What say we get ice cream? I'm hot!"

"Uh... Cam? Babe, it's February."

"And? Combined body heat can be blistering. Or don't you remember?"

We tended to use that line a lot, transforming random sentences into disturbing innuendos. It was a habit formed a few years ago to make my mom cringe, when Grant dared us to tell my mom, in great detail, about the two of us having sex. Never mind that we hadn't, at the time. I couldn't bring myself to do it, so we resorted to blatantly obvious hints. She would know that we would never tell her flat out, and would not have believed it for a second, anyways.

I sat down with a cone of mint chocolate chip. "So, may I enjoy a murder spree at your school, or are you coming to mine?"

"Ha, ha. Yeah, I do think we're exchanging, though."

"My place or yours?" we both laughed at the cliché. It sounded so normal, as if we were deciding whose house to meet at before a date, not our spy and assassin training schools, respectively. It was just made slightly funnier by the fact that, outside of school, we lived together.

"I'd rather go somewhere different... Hawaii, maybe?"

"I like Paris," I replied.

"We already went there, or don't you remember?" This time the innuendo was real, true in actuality. His voice grew huskier the closer he grew to me. I had just closed my eyes when he unexpectedly changed direction, pecked both of my eyelids, and pulled away.

Now it was my turn to pout. "That was for earlier, you naughty thing!"

"Oh, so I'm a thing to you? I guess we could get a divorce, then..."

"Nah, you love me too much. Let's get to the helicopter."


	3. III

"Oh, Cameron. What an excellent surprise! It is so lovely to see you, but to what do I owe the pleasure?" Dr. Steve was piloting the helicopter.

"Well... Mr. Solomon, I guess? I wasn't ready to leave when he was, and I let him know, so he assured me I wouldn't be let back in to the Academy before morning."

"Isn't that a slight harsh for the circumstances?" Jesse, the Blackthorne "blackscene" teacher, asked.

"Oh, trust me. When she says she let him know, she means she _really _let him know," Zach said.

"Come on, Zachy! It wasn't that bad!" I put my hand on one side of my mouth, a la third grade, and stage whispered to the rest of the class, "It really wasn't."

"I always put my money with the ladies, Zachy. It's just so hard to imagine her as anything but the perfect young woman," Jesse told him.

I laughed as the boys looked at him skeptically, as if he were insane. They had seen me in IWS, having food fights, shooting fake people dead, and shamelessly seducing Zach into the smallest things. I was obviously not this perfect young woman, and they knew it.

"Well, Cameron, I suppose I will have to contact our kitchen staff to get them to prepare something special in celebration of your arrival," Dr. Steve said. I stifled a giggle and turned to Zach.

"Oh, goody. Maybe I'll get warm slop instead of cold. Be jealous," I whispered into his ear. Then, louder, I turned to the rest of the students and said, "Hear that, boys? If you're on kitchen duty tonight, I expect my reconstituted mush microwaved!"

Blackthorne was a far cry from Gallagher. They trained boy assassins in place of girl spies, but their differences did not end there. The boys had IWS- Improved Workouts and Sparring, instead of P&E and blackscene for CoveOps. Blackscene was where they did their killing and their covert related courses. And, obviously, they didn't have prep school quality uniforms or meals, and would never dream of employing someone for a position such as Madam Dabney's.

As we landed, I eyed the campus. The mirage of low concrete buildings and multiple barbed wire fences soon faded and we looked at the medieval castle that was home to my husband whenever I wasn't. The castle had somehow been transported from Ireland to make its final resting place in Maine.

Blackthorne Castle was as dark and mysterious as its name and the boys it housed. Of course, these boys were far less mysterious when you got to know them. And one doesn't spend as many Visitor's Weeks and random weekends with the castle's adolescent occupants as I have without getting to know each and every one of them. Plus, I heard plenty of stories from Zach on the phone every day, or when some of his friends stayed with us over the summer, or whenever Grant and I hung out.

All of Zach's classmates knew we were married. After all, while it's normal for a girl to wear a white gold rock studded band on her finger, most guys don't wear such nice rings. Mine was white gold, with a big diamond in the middle, smaller sapphires on either side, and two larger emeralds on the outside. To represent our eyes, he had said. His was solid white gold, engraved on the inside, closest to his finger and, subsequently, his heart.

They had figured out in an instant- except for Grant- especially since they had already met me and knew we were dating. However, my friends didn't know and I intended to keep it that way. Gallagher and Blackthorne were bound to exchange eventually, so they could wait and see.

"So, Cam," Grant started at dinner that night. "Do you get sore down there every month?"

The dank, bug- laden water I had been attempting to choke down spewed across the room, hitting a senior on the back of the head. I called out an apology before turning my attention back to the boy in front of me. "Did you just ask me what I think you just asked me?" I asked.

"Well I was reading this book..." He trailed off due to Jonas's extremely rude interruption.

"What have I told you about reading, Newman? Nothing you ever read is any good for you!" he huffed.

"Did my favorite nerd just actually tell someone not to read? I thought that was, like, against the Genius Code or something," Zach commented.

"Shut up, Goode. No one likes you," was Anderson's lame retort.

"For your information, Grant, I don't know. Ask someone who actually gets hers."


	4. IV

"Zachary, I would like my daughter back," my mom said when on the phone with Zach at some obscene hour the next morning.

"Don't you remember? You gave her to me a little less than two years ago, when we got married," he replied sarcastically.

"Don't _you_ remember? Both of you are minors at the moment, so for a little less than two years, she's still technically legally mine," she retorted.

"A year and three months," he said shortly.

"Oh, counting down the days, are we, Zachary?" she asked.

"Hell yeah. I don't see any shame in it, Morgan," he said.

"Language, Goode. I expect her back by lunch, got it?" I heard through the phone.

"Ugh! She hung up on me! I can't believe it! How rude! Your mother hung up on me, Cam," he whined.

"They do say the mother in law is the ultimate bitch," I offered. He glared.

"Oh, what gives, baby? Never been hung up on before?" I asked.

"No!" he exclaimed. I giggled.

"Well, there's a first time for everything; at least you've gotten it over with," I attempted to console him.

Looking at me, his expression softened. "You were screaming around three this morning. Care to share?"

"Just the usual nightmares. Less of a nightmare, really, and more of a memory. Except, when he was hurting me, you jumped in to stop him, and he killed you. That never happened, obviously."

"But it would have, if he hadn't gotten killed on that mission three years ago," he reminded me.

My abusive father had been hurting me since I was six, when my mom went MIA for a while. She had lived, of course, but went to Gallagher without even letting us know she was alive. She tells me every time I blame all of my problems on her that she thought she was protecting me. She just didn't know that what I really needed protecting from was my dad. He was killed in action three years ago when I was fourteen, and it wasn't until then that the abuse stopped and I began staying with my grandparents over the summers. All I had left of the abuse was frequent doctor's appointments, a plethora of prescription medications to be taken daily, and overwhelming old hospital bills.

His abuse left me with tumors in my uterus, results of a sexually transmitted disease. I was rendered infertile and there was always the chance my tumors could relapse. I took many medicines to avoid that, insomnia medicines as I had sleeping troubles due to nightmares, and for plenty of other things, like scar prevention due to my numerous procedures.

"So, Cam," Grant started at breakfast the next day- I was disliking this already, it reminded me of yesterday, and look how that went- "sleep well last night?"

I shook my head and groaned.

"I didn't think so,"he said. "You kept screaming Zach's name and whimpering, with a few groans thrown in for good measure."

"He was dying in my dream, okay? And I need to get my sleeping pills filled. I was out of them and couldn't pop a few to drown out the nightmares like I normally do," I replied, causing him to fall silent. I stormed out of the mess hall, and Zach followed me. Jesse was supposed to fly us back on one of the helicopters today.

I slipped on one of Zach's old uniforms from seventh grade, one of the canary yellow jumpsuits that said GOODE I big, capitol, black block letters. I had converted the pants into short shorts and sewn big, gaudy black buttons into the top, cutting the sleeves into three- quarter lengths that folded back up to about my elbow. I had a black tank under it because I didn't button the buttons until halfway down my torso.

Lastly, I put a walking boot on one foot and a black Toms on the other. Grant had accidentally pushed me off a forty foot cliff yesterday when we were shooting archery. The targets were six hundred yards away and down the cliff. It hurt like crap, but I hadn't complained too much. My whole torso was wrapped up in gauze because it ruptured some old scar tissue that had had skin again on it. I had fractured seven tarsals and my fibula, but it would be fine within the month, of course.

I sighed and boarded the helicopter.


	5. V

"Giddy up, horsey!" I grabbed Zach's belt out of his pants and began whipping him on the thigh with it.

"Holy crap, Cam, I'm going, alright?"

"Yeah, going! You're supposed to be galloping, idiot! I thought someone who was a student at an _advanced _school would know how horses move," I mocked him.

"Ha, ha. Not. I've been running with you on my back this whole time, from the gates, to your suite, through the hall of history, and almost all the way back to the Grand Hall! Of course I'll walk eventually! What more could you want from me, girl?"

"Exactly. You ran the whole way. All this time, and you still haven't gotten the right movements down pat! Now let's start practicing, because I want a good galloping grand entrance," I reminded him teasingly.

Behind us, Jesse was walking with a video camera. "Whipped," he hissed.

"What was that?" Zach asked rhetorically. Jesse moved around in front of us to capture our faces from a front angle.

"I said, you've got the most pussy whipped ass I've ever seen!" Jesse repeated. Yes, he is most definitely not your average teacher. It probably has something to do with the fact that he's nineteen and it's only his second year teaching.

"Well, it's true. You do have a pussy whipped ass," I agreed, just as we entered the Grand Hall.

"At least it pays off," he commented, earning a peck on the lips.

"Cameron! Did I just hear what I think I just heard come out of your mouth?" my mother asked disbelievingly, as if she had never heard me speak foul language in the slightest.

"Um... well, I guess that would depend on what you think you heard?" I said, raising my intonation near the end of the sentence to turn it in to a question.

I didn't care to hear what she had to say on the matter, whispering into Zach's ear, "Your job isn't over until you take me to my seat." I slapped his thigh with his belt again.

"Now, now. Not too demanding! We couldn't have our Zachy getting too domesticated, now," Grant teased.

"Domesticated? Isn't that, like, being neutered?" I asked.

"Hey, watch it, girly! Being neutered is for bitches!" Zach exclaimed.

"Exactly. But, you know, cats too. Don't be so... cattist? Specist?"

"Specist?" Grant asked.

"Yeah. Like... against a species? I invented it," I replied.

"Ahh," he said, as Zach began speaking at the exact same time.

"Hush up, bitch, or we may be getting you neutered!" Zach warned.

"Oh, whatever. We all know you'd never do it," I laughed.

"Get some, Zach!" Jesse whooped.

"Nah, don't bother," Grant retorted, "he got some last night. Gosh, Cam, you're so loud!"

"Zach didn't get anything last night. He never gets anything on Tuesdays, because he does his sheets on Wednesdays," I informed him matter- of- factly. "I was having a nightmare."

"Oh, really? A nightmare that had you moaning, whimpering, and screaming Zach's name?" he asked, causing Jesse's eyebrows to raise to an unnatural height.

` "Yes."

"Ahh. Sounds more like a sex dream to me, Cameron. What say you, Jess-meister?"

"Zach," I whined, "tell him! Tell him it was a legit nightmare!"

"Well her dad-" he began.

"Not now! On the ride back or something! I don't want everyone knowing all about it!" I screamed in complaint.

"But Cam, it's alright. That will never happen! He's dead!" Zach comforted me.

"No, I'm not talking about just me dad. You can't tell me you wouldn't die to protect me, because that isn't true. Tell me, why did we hire a cook?"

"So she would lock up our kitchen knives," he said.

"And why did our knives need locking up?" I asked patiently.

"So you wouldn't attempt suicide?" his answer was unsure, questioning.

"No, we had already agreed by that point that I was past cutting. Why? Think, Zachary," I pushed him gently.

"I... I don't know?"

"Because of what you did when I was in the hospital last year. Remember?"

"Cameron, are you and Zachary finished now? I do believe you are disrupting my students' lunch time, are you not?" my mother demanded.

"Apologies, Headmistress," I hop off of Zach's back and curtsy to my mom, beckoning Zach close for a goodbye kiss. It runs a slight longer than I expected, and my mother appears ready to begin yelling again.

"Friday?" he asks. I nod a yes.

"Be a dear and call in my prescriptions to Roseville, would you? I appear to have lost my phone..." I trail off. I grab Jesse and Grant into quick goodbye hugs and bid Zach farewell one last time, sitting down. I then see the questioning and utterly confused eyes of my girls. Great.

** Been a while, eh? I know, I'm horrible for getting y'all used to something then not updating for... I think its been a week? Idk. I went out of town, then this week we had standardized testing, but next week I have spring break, so more updates! Yay! I'm going out of town again for... I think 5 days during spring break? But ill put another one up later today to make up for it, and then after spring break I have 2 days of honor band, and this year our practice location is my brother's school, so I can walk from my house! That means I wont have homework and 3 hours where I'd usually be at school, so I can type more. Also, this is really late since the rest were pre written and didn't have author's notes, so I couldn't tell y'all, but the original 2 was the real 3, so y'all reviewed reeeeaaally good the first time for 2, not, like, at all the next time, and barely any for four, so since I've never pressured y'all to review in this story, y'all kinda owe me, so I want 10. I'm not with holding updates or anything, but... please? Much luv! **


	6. VI

"Cam? Is there anything we need to know?" Bex asked, her tone stating obviously that she felt she _needed _to know something.

"Nope," I popped my p, something I learned from Grant.

"Well, is there something you'd like us to know?" Macey tried.

"Absolutely not."

"Well, is there something we'd like to know?" Tina asked.

"When is there not, Walters?" I snorted.

"Fine. Who was the hottie?"

"Which one?" Kim wondered aloud.

"The one she was kissing! Duh!" Time for Lizzy's condescending nerdy behavior.

"Zach. The one with the camera was Jesse, one of Zach's teachers, and the other was Grant one of his roommates," I said.

"Wait, that dude was a teacher? Holy crap, I want to go to his school!" Courtney Bauer exclaimed.

"Blackthorne is an all boys' school. You know, hence the "Blackthorne Institute for _Boys_"?

I then noticed my mother's glare. She was staring, all too literally, dead into my eyes.

CLIFFY! OMG, IS HER DEAR BELOVED MOMMY DEAD? HAHA SHE IS SO NOT DEAR AND BELOVED LOL YOULL SEE! *EVILNESS...* Ohh, and a random but hilarious thing, when I typed "popping my p", it ended up as "pooping my p" at first! Wow I'm acting like a 5 year old but it was hilarious! Also, any reviewers (since I didn't get many last time, but ff has been being mean to me for the past 2 hours, and it hasn't been but like three since the last one, and I know some people haven't seen it) will get an amazing sneak peek! I had this awesome inspiration, so... yeah. 100 words per review, it's like 800- 1000 words. You can go back and review other chapters you haven't reviewed yet, or I accept anonymous reviews so you can sign out and write your pen name/ the same name for each one. Kay? I wanna be giving out lots of reviews!


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